This past Sunday, True North Brass performed at the historic Sharon Temple. This is truly a unique structure! It was built by a religious sect called the “Children of Peace,” who were former Quakers. The architecture represents many of the tenets of their faith; for instance, the building has three stories to represent the Trinity. You can read more about the Children of the Peace and the Sharon Temple here.
Because of the remarkable acoustics of the Temple, Stephen Cera, who is Artistic Director of Music at Sharon, requested that we include some antiphonal music in our program. So, for this performance, we invited Rob Weymouth & James Langridge (trumpets), Julian Alexandrov (horn), our webmaster Nick Mahon (trombone), and Courtney Lambert (tuba) to join us in a few selections, including Samuel Scheidt’s Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ and a double quintet version of Scott’s Ceremonial Fanfare. TNB also performed selections from John Beckwith’s Tunes of the Sharon Band, which is a suite of music which was played by the first civilian band in Canada.
Inside the building, one of the most striking features is “Jacob’s Ladder,” which leads to a gallery on the second story. To begin the second half of the program, Ray, Rob and I climbed the ladder and played the fanfare from Swan Lake to call the audience back in. I’m pretty good with heights — I once acquired the nickname “Monkey Boy” — but it was a little disconcerting to realize that as soon as we climbed down one of the ushers roped off the ladder and hung a sign warning people to stay off! But we made it in one piece, and for the first time in my career I received applause for climbing a ladder.
All in all, it was a wonderful event — a great venue, an appreciative audience, and none of the trumpet players fell to their deaths! The shot above shows Ray making his descent. (Click the photo to enlarge.)